Reversibility of ethylenethiourea-induced thyroid lesions

Groups of 50 male and 50 female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing 0, 75, 100, or 150 ppm ethylenethiourea (ETU) for 7 weeks, at which time subgroups of 10 animals from each group were killed. Subsequent subgroups of 10, 10, and 20 animals were killed after an additional 2, 3, and 4 weeks, respectively, on the control diet in order to examine whether the toxicological effects induced by ETU were reversible. In both sexes, the mean body weight and feed consumption were significantly decreased in all treated groups, while the mean thyroid weight (absolute as well as relative to both body and brain weight) appeared to increase linearly with dose. Mean T4 blood levels in animals fed 150 ppm ETU were significantly below those in controls. The magnitude of the changes in body weight, thyroid weight, and T4 blood levels observed during the first 7 weeks of the study decreased after ETU was removed from the diet. The statistical procedures developed and applied here may be useful in other experiments designed to assess the reversibility of other toxicological endpoints.